I spent a month in Israel in 2009. I find myself thinking of the trip often. Jerusalem is really like nothing else I've ever seen. I found the climate and the terrain in Israel very physically demanding (I was there in the middle of the summer, hiking in the Judean Desert) but the effort was well worth it. I'd recommend taking the cable cars to Masada though. Toughing it out on the snake path is not the way to go.